CHAPTER 363: CHAPTER 363: WORK WITH ME

"About that, I’ve been thinking..." Marcus paused as Kael’s ears perked up.

He looked around, leveling his gaze at Katari and the other lionesses.

"Don’t worry about them, speak freely," Kael said with a calm, harmless smile.

Marucs nodded, then transformed into his humanoid form. He took on the appearance of a naked man with pale skin, skinny hunched form, dark eye circles around his eyes, and pitch black eyes.

In his humanoid form, he wasn’t as tall as Kael as he now had to raise his head slightly to look at Kael’s face.

"You talked about working together before," Marcus stated, "What did you have in mind?"

Kael nodded his head, his smile widening and becoming more terrifying as his sharp golden teeth were exposed.

"Oh, nothing much. I was thinking of you working for me.

I have a lot of things that I want to do and I could use someone with your skills, power, and new status very well," Kael said.

Marcus stared at Kael, his thoughts known only to himself. He had already guessed that Kael was the kind of person who was very ambitious despite his niceness to him.

Looking around, all his actions tended to follow in that direction of conquering something. Him infiltrating the super mega herd and also being responsible for the creation of this bloody field and so many meat eaters gathering at once.

Kael was ambitious, he thought so.

"What is it exactly that you want to do?" Marcus asked.

"I want to conquer the world, did you hear the chants? For he shall conquer all, that’s what I want to do.

I’ll have to start with this planet though, small beginnings," Kael said.

"Small beginnings? You are very ambitious, Kael," Marcus said with a smile, "What about those that may stand in you’re way?"

Kael narrowed his eyes, "Are you one of them?" He asked.

Marcus shook his head, "No, I’m not interested in such things. Even when you gave me that little bit of Conquering Essence, it felt exhilarating but also tiring.

It felt like constantly being on edge and looking over you’re shoulders. There’s no peace of mind," Marcus reasoned.

Kael nodded, "No, there’s no peace. But I’ve accepted a long time ago that true peace will forever be far away from my reach.

At least, not until I become the apex.

As for those who may oppose me, they’ll be neutralized as usual,"

"Hmm," Marcus tilted his head, "And you want me to work for you? How?" Aren’t we supposed to just stick together as Primordials to protect ourselves?"

There was a second of silence as Kael paused before responding. His smile didn’t falter and his aura didn’t lessen.

"Yes, we are meant to stick together. But think of it like this, we both have to pull our weight if we want to be efficient and effective.

Naturally, I’m the leader, unless you feel otherwise..."

"No, I don’t," Marcus shook his head calmly. It would be unwise to think he could be the leader when Kael was present.

"Well then, some I’m the boss, you’ll be working for me, isn’t that it? And in return, I’ll support you.

Listen, I see you as a potential friend, I really do. But I don’t have time to sugarcoat my words to make them more appealing than they currently are.

To put it bluntly, we are all that we have right now. I plan on finding more Primordials in the future but we have to make do for ourselves.

If you don’t want to work for me, it’s fine. I won’t force you..."

"It’s not that," Marcus shook his head, then stared up at the sky. His eyes reflected the bottom of the vast metal machine that now replaced the sky.

The world was getting darker quickly and the sun was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, then what is it?" Kael asked.

"I don’t mind working for you, you’ve already proven that you are capable. Besides, I doubt I would be able to resist the potential benefits that you’ll offer.

I just want to understand how exactly you plan on doing it, how do you want me to work for you? What am I to do? Do I just need to help you or..." Marcus stated.

"Forget about that for now, just follow my lead and everything will be alright. You need to trust me if we are going to work together, okay?

You’ve followed my lead before and benefited greatly. Just trust me from now on," Kael said while stretching out his hand for a handshake.

Marcus stared at the hand in confusion, he didn’t know what a handshake was.

Kael quickly realized this, "Anyways, will you work with me from now on?" He asked.

Marcus thought for a moment, he turned back to look at the vultures behind him.

"And what about them?" Marcus asked.

"They are yours to lead, Marcus. You follow my lead, they’ll follow your lead." Kael said.

"So they’ll effectively be becoming your subjects then. Like these...castes?" Marcus asked to confirm. He wasn’t stupid after all and felt that Kael was probably hiding some things.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Kael asked, genuinely seeking an answer.

He wanted to understand from the perspective of other creatures that were not yet part of his Kingdom. Was it a bad thing to be his subject?

It was a valid question.

"No, I don’t think so," Marcus shook his head and responded truthfully. From his observation and what his scout vultures had told him, the creatures of the kingdom were not living too badly.

Apart from having to follow some orders, there weren’t many restrictions at all. Everything was just somewhat orderly and more organized.

"So..." Kael pressed with that harmless smile of his.

"I’ll work with you," Marucs said. As bad as anyone wanted to paint Kael, this was the wild, he was offering a better deal than most would think of.

As long as no one behaved like Vixy or became delusional like Stella, all should be fine...right?

Kael’s smile faded away, surprising Marcus.

"You’re not ambitious, Marcus, That’s why you needed me to push you," Kael said calmly.

"Yeah, I know," Marcus said, scratching his bald head and wondering why Kael was bringing this up.

"It’s probably just not part of your nature. Death itself has no desire, it’s just Death.

But to follow me and be the leader of this new Vulture Caste, you’d need a certain level of ambition and desire.

Don’t worry, all your ambition from now on will come from me and will exist because of me..."

As Kael spoke, faint shimmers of Conquering Essence escaped from his body and flowed into Marcus’s body.

Marcus stood still, somewhat anticipating that intoxicating feeling.

But it didn’t come as he expected.

He felt that tightness in his chest as well as the pumping of undead blood through his veins. But it wasn’t as amazing as the first time.

It was almost like he was becoming immune. His Death Essence was automatically trying to counter the Conquering Essence without his permission, an act of self-preservation.

Would Death still be Death if it had its own ambitions?

As Primordials, it was in Marcus’s nature to be nihilistic as it was in Kael’s nature to be ambitious. Trying to change that nature long term would come at a cost that would have to be shared both ways.

"I see," Kael muttered, he had half expected something like this to happen.

"What’s wrong?" Marcus asked.

"Nothing that I can’t handle," Kael said.

He was already thinking of an obvious solution to this. The Primordial Contracts.

That name wasn’t right, a better name would be Conqueror’s Contract.

’Yes,’ Kael nodded to himself. That name was better, he was sure that not all Primordials could create contracts like him.

’It’s just like Derylia did with the Primordial Dragon of that time, they were able to share powers back then.

If I can recreate her same contract, I and Marcus should be able to share powers too...’

Kael was getting giddy just thinking about it, he could already imagine what he would do if he had the power of death at the top of his claws.

But first, he would have to recreate the contract.

"Add your identity marks to this Vassal Record first," Kael said as he summoned the Vassal Record screen in front of Marcus.

"What’s a vassal?" Marcus asked as he nonchalantly added his identity mark to the Vassal Record.

Come to think of it, most creatures on Eridoria didn’t know what it meant to be a vassal.

"Someone that’s under my governance. Remember to make all your vultures add their identity marks too," Kael said as he looked away.

Now that Marcus was on his side, he could focus on some other things.

"Okay, so what’s there to do now? What are we currently working on?" Marcus asked.

"World domination," Kael said casually.

"Right now?" Marcus was puzzled.

"Yes, right now, the world isn’t going to conquer itself," Kael stated as he put his arms behind him and took a deep breath.

"Kael," Chloe suddenly called him from behind.

"What is it?" Kael asked without turning back.

Chloe looked at the golden screen in front of her with a worried expression, "It’s my grandfather, he said something just happened in heaven and is asking about you."

"Oh..." This got Kael’s attention but before he could ask further questions, he coincidentally received a message from none other than Exalon.

...

Exalon: What did you do?